Have Profit Preannouncements
Steepened the Market's Drop?

New Disclosure Rule Prompts
Rash of Negative Forecasts

The flood has begun, and lots of ships are sinking. But has it made them sink faster than they otherwise would have gone down?

The issue is negative earnings preannouncements, which have increased drastically in the wake of Regulation FD, the Securities and Exchange Commission's fair-disclosure mandate. In effect since October, the regulation requires companies to release all material information to everyone at once, instead of...